Hidden Beneath The Waterfall
A few nights ago I was lucky enough to have a chat with Sanna and Emilia from Finnish band Dinosauruxia. They were resting after a few nights out celebrating their graduation from High School. We chatted for just over an hour about the girls’ cosmic relationship before the late night took hold of me and I became the tired one.
The duo first met in The Faroe Islands, a small group of islands that lie in the waters approximately half-way between Iceland and Scotland. The islands are officially an autonomous province of Denmark, but have close ties with Norway. “We met eight years ago at school as ten-year-olds,” they say. Now aged 18, they both live in Finland, where they have just graduated from High School. Describing themselves as best friends, they say, “We got separated for a while but our souls met again… and we’ve been BFFs ever since.”
They have been playing music together for about three years now, but declare “About a year ago we got more serious about it.” Now that school is out they are both looking forward to having a bit more freedom. School has restricted their ability to arrange shows and tour throughout Finland, and now that it’s over they feel it is a good opportunity to focus on the band’s popularity. With school out the girls say “Music is the focus” and they will now be able to spend a lot more time together, whereas previously they have worked separately. Sanna says, “We both do all sorts of things, but most of it separately in our own bedrooms. Mostly Emilia focuses on doing the lyrics and vocals. But now that we have more time we can do everything together.”
School has only been out a week or so and they’ve been celebrating with their friends. They joke, “We tried the Finnish way of partying. It felt very authentic… also, we got nice hats. It was pretty intense.”
The pair also enjoy photography; the photos on their myspace page show that they are very capable photographers and that they have some very creative friends. “It’s in our inner authentic nature. We are deeply connected to our cameras,” they say. Dressing up also adds to the artistic value, “Dressing up of course makes life easier, but sometimes we just like to be bare naked.” However, despite now calling Finland home they still admit to missing the Faroe Islands, especially when it comes to photography. “Faroe Islands is our hearts’ homeland and we love the waterfalls, mountains and fog. To be honest naked photography was easier in the Faroe Islands – it felt more natural. Here it just feels dirty.”
The girls’ creative essence has also led to the making of a couple of wonderful music videos. With the help of their friends; they say a special thanks to “the beautiful designer Antii Asplund”, they have been able to make two different videos for their song ‘Sky (Time Is Unfolding)’. Unfortunately Finnish television (there’s a music channel called Voice) isn’t quite as accommodating as music television here in New Zealand. They say “Finnish TV doesn’t care about tiny bands’ music. It mostly consists of bands who have huge labels backing them.” You can however watch the two videos on the Dinosauruxia myspace page.
Despite growing up and living in a non-English speaking country, a large number of their songs are sung in English, Emilia explains, “We grew up watching American soaps without dubbing, so we couldn’t help but learn English. Also, English felt more natural to us because then we can reach a wider audience, so it heats more hearts in the world.” The majority of people in Finland, however, do speak Finnish and they sing a number of songs in the Finnish language. They say “Finnish is a really fun language, we’ve been working on two songs that are in Finnish.”
“we’re primal beings, raw animals, big fleshy pieces of space’s love…”
Towards the end of 2009, Dinosauruxia will be releasing a split 7″ vinyl with New Zealand band Moron Says What?!. No one’s entirely sure exactly how it came to happen, but it has something to do with the power of the internet. “Actually we got discovered through myspace by the lovely Envex Records, which is now planning to release a split EP record with Moron Says What?! and us. The whole experience has been really heartwarming and we’d love to visit Australia and New Zealand,” the girls candidly admit. The Norway based Envex Records has previously worked with New Zealand band V!xens, releasing V!xens’ V for Victory EP.
The split EP will be Dinosauruxia’s first official release (apart from a demo CD the band has floating about) and they are looking at the EP as the first step towards gaining more fans ahead of recording an album. They say “Yes, we have talked about releasing a whole album, but we’ll see what happens when the split comes out. Maybe some touring first so that people can get to get inside our music and we wont come out as a shock to the world. Because sometimes we do; sometimes it is very nasty, sometimes it’s warmer than being in a sauna with all the clothes on.”
And of course the question on everyone’s lips, what is the meaning behind the name Dinosauruxia? Well, there’s a slightly cryptic answer: “We’re primal beings, raw animals, big fleshy pieces of space’s love. It’s hard to explain and even harder to be. It came to us in a dream.”
Dinosauruxia- Bubblez: MP3
Dinosauruxia- Ecstacy Braincells: MP3
Dinosauruxia- Sky (Time Is Unfolding): MP3
Dinosauruxia- Myspace
Posted by Nick Fulton under Faroe Islands, Finland
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